There’s plenty to unpack after Saturday’s four-game slate saw three of the Elite League’s title protagonists fall to defeat.
The Coventry Blaze stunned the Sheffield Steelers, with Colton Saucerman coming back to haunt his former side by scoring the opener in Yorkshire.
Further north, the Nottingham Panthers came unstuck in overtime against the Dundee Stars, who bounced back from last week’s 7-1 loss to the Guildford Flames with one of their best performances of the season.
Elsewhere, the Belfast Giants fell to the Cardiff Devils and Guildford ended the Fife Flyers’ two-game winning run.
Welcome to Around the Rinks: our daily summary of every Elite League team’s post-game media remarks.
Around the Rinks: Saturday, 6 December 2025
Sheffield Steelers 1-3 Coventry Blaze
Colton Saucerman, Coventry Blaze (Image: Dean Woolley)
Aaron Fox, Sheffield Steelers:
It wasn’t a great first period and I felt that was a tone setter tonight. They out-worked and out-competed us, even though it was still tied heading into the intermission.
I thought our third period was our best, but anything can happen when you don’t play a full sixty minutes and both of their goals game off our tape. They made us pay for those mistakes and we didn’t have enough urgency or desperation tonight, which is obviously frustrating.
Again, we’ve played some really good hockey here of late, but this is a lesson that you need to stay switched on. [Mat] Robson was great tonight: we had 22 shots in the third period alone and didn’t get anything from it.
Kevin Moore, Coventry Blaze:
It was a good game and I loved our start. When we start well, we can see the habits that we need to win games of hockey and we built from there. Obviously, we’re coming into a hard arena against one of the best teams in the league, so you have to be switched on for the full hour.
Dundee Stars 3-2 Nottingham Panthers (OT)
Otto Nieminen, Dundee Stars (Image: Derek Black)
Marc LeFebvre, Dundee Stars:
I’m happy that we won and that’s the main thing at the end of the day.
That said, I’m so happy with our compete level today. If we lost that game, the compete level was there. Let’s be honest, last Sunday wasn’t good and to have this performance, against the best team in the league, as the response is great. I couldn’t be more pleased.
It was well-earned: we had to fight for every puck and every inch and we were rewarded in the end.
The guys came in this week with the right attitude. We pretty much burned the tape from the game against [the Guildford Flames] because we can’t dwell on it. Whether you win or lose games, you’ve got to move forward and that’s what we did.
There’s still lots to go, but it was much better tonight. We closed down space a lot better and were more physical. That’s a hell of a hockey team over there and they can hurt you. The important thing for us was to not turn over pucks at their blueline because they can hurt you in the transition.
When we had breakdowns, [Emil Kruse] kept us going out there. All you ask for from your goalie is to give you a chance, and that’s what he did.
It was a total team effort tonight.
Danny Stewart, Nottingham Panthers:
I’m disappointed with the result, but I can’t fault our guys’ effort or compete and we had control of the puck for most of the night. We certainly created enough chances to win, but we ran into a hot goalie tonight and [Emil] Kruse played a phenomenal game.
Giving up the second goal, allowing them to level it with five minutes left, stings. And it was a nice individual effort from them to win it in overtime, which happens. It was a heck of a goal.
We’ll take the point: I’m happy with the performance, but sometimes you run into a hot goalie. It is what it is and we’ve got to pick 0urselves up for tomorrow.
Cardiff Devils 2-1 Belfast Giants
Cole Sanford, Cardiff Devils (Image: James Assinder)
Paul Thompson, Cardiff Devils:
It was a good game between two good teams. When they get into the offensive zone, they’re strong with the puck and we were pretty strong off the rush. It was a tight game. Sometimes we fall off the cliff, like last week, and I was pleased for them today. When you’re playing teams of Belfast’s ability, it’s not easy.
Adam Keefe, Belfast Giants:
I’m gutted for the boys, I thought we did enough to get a point out of that one. I thought our compete level was good for the majority of the game, it was there and we were battling.
The disallowed goal was a turning point, but we didn’t generate enough at five-on-five to force that to overtime or to get the win in regulation. I think that’s due to a lack of execution.
We were squeezing the stick a little bit, but I can’t take anything away from the guys. Jackson [Whistle] was great out there and gave us the chance to win. It didn’t fall our way, but we’ll go again next week.
Guildford Flames 5-2 Fife Flyers
Logan Neilson, Nottingham Panthers (Image: John Uwins)
Paul Dixon, Guildford Flames:
It was a really tough game and we spoke about that coming in: Fife had a four-point weekend last time and they came in full of confidence. In the first period, they were the way better team. But you’ve got to stick with it and I thought we were better in the second period, putting ourselves in a great position at three-nil. They scored two quick goals, shift-after-shift, to get back in the game, but the third period was our best period.
Overall, we’re happy to come away with the win. It was an ugly win, we weren’t at our best tonight, and you have to give Fife credit for that because they’re a good team. With the changes that they’ve made and the game tonight, you can see that they’re going to start going in the right direction.
Jamie Russell, Fife Flyers:
I thought we had a great first period, we could’ve been up by one or two. We didn’t make a lot of intelligent decisions as the game progressed: we’ve got a lot of guys who are back in the line-up, which is great to see, but they haven’t played a lot of hockey over the last month. I thought the decision-making for our whole group could’ve been a lot better tonight.
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